U.S., Iraq work together to protect Baghdad from ISIS

WASHINGTON — In July, the Islamic State carried out one of the deadliest car bombings in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003, killing more than 300 people in Baghdad.

The Pentagon responded by rushing a three-star general to the capital to offer the Iraqi authorities new technology, tactics and advisers to help thwart additional attacks.

And in the weeks before the current Iraqi push to reclaim Mosul, the U.S.led air campaign against the militant group redoubled its strikes on car bombs and car-bomb factories.

So far, the strategy has worked.

The threat by the Islamic State to retaliate for the Mosul assault with crippling car bombings in Baghdad has been largely neutralized.

Lt. Gen. Michael H. Shields, the head of the Pentagon’s Joint Improvised Threat-Defeat Orga- nization, brought to Baghdad several military bomb squad experts and other technical advisers to train Iraqis to harden the capital’s defenses against huge bombs carried by cars and trucks.

Shields also studied new ways to combat ISIS’ growing fleet of exploding drones.

Since then, Americans and Iraqis have worked closely to set up new checkpoints, using X-rays in the inspections.

The Iraqi authorities are honing their skills in finding, defusing and destroying explosive devices.

Intelligence networks were bolstered, as was aerial surveillance, using drones and manned aircraft.

In and around Mosul, U.S. and allied warplanes have destroyed nearly three dozen car bombs since the offensive began.

They have also wiped out about a dozen carbomb factories around Mosul and other northern Iraqi towns.